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This is not a problem. it is normal mine does it to. And i have seen 2 other Mazda's where i live do it to. Its the valves in are case if you are running a thin oil it will do it. Just the next time you change oil just get a bottle of Lucas oil stabilizer. When i stick a hole bottle of that in my car my ticking stops i user a European type of oil 0w 40. This oil is made by mobel 1 it is used for like BMW's, Porsche, and all kinds of fast cars. This oil protects more at higher temp's. Good for those play times on the street. I asked few of my buddies at the Mazda dealer about this and they said its just the way they are built the valves are just slightly bigger then normal so they seal right. Hints why they click some times.

Legato626 wrote:This is not a problem. it is normal mine does it to. And i have seen 2 other Mazda's where i live do it to. Its the valves in are case if you are running a thin oil it will do it. Just the next time you change oil just get a bottle of Lucas oil stabilizer. When i stick a hole bottle of that in my car my ticking stops i user a European type of oil 0w 40. This oil is made by mobel 1 it is used for like BMW's, Porsche, and all kinds of fast cars. This oil protects more at higher temp's. Good for those play times on the street. I asked few of my buddies at the Mazda dealer about this and they said its just the way they are built the valves are just slightly bigger then normal so they seal right. Hints why they click some times.

YES, it is a problem! The 1.8L engine should NOT tick if you use the recommend oil (10w30 or 5w30). My engine has over 240,000km's with standard 10w30 motor oil in it and it's f---in DEAD SILENT...no ticking/tapping at all. Yepddi do you have seen 2 other Mazda's do the same thing....just means they have the same problem you do. It's amazing what people try to pull out of their a--.

Its not really a huge problem per se.

Mazda has a million TSB's relating to their HLA's ticking.

It basically means one or more of your HLA's isn't pumping up to what it should and makes a tick sound every time the cam presses down on it.

this means the valves aren't opening all the way which means less power, less efficient, wasted gas, but it isn't SUPER horrible on performance if it is your everday car.

The ultimate fix would be to replace the HLA's, they cost a clean $47 each from mazda new and there are 24 of them. What I did when I did my swap was removed each one, and cleaned the crap out of them with kerosene & parts cleaner. I reprimed them with some motor oil and installed them back. They were ROCK FRIGGIN SOLID when I put them back and they only tick slightly on start up and make no sounds when the car is warmed up.


Usually they tick b/c the oil is too thick to properly go through the tiny holes on their sides, usually the result of cold weather. since weather is getting warmer now, if yours are still ticking CONSTANTLY i'd worry that one ore more of your HLAs are royally defunct or clogged.

Yah, not a huge problem...but still an issue that SHOULD not be experienced if everything is working the way it was initally designed.

when i bought my car we heard that ticking noise, mechanic said it was most likely the HLA's so we call up the mazda dealer ohyah its only 1100 bucks to fix so i'm like ugh... the mechanic said its not that big of a deal, but fixing it may prolong the engine life, its best to stay on top of these things . the lady at the mazda dealer then told me that its more likely a belt tensioner i believe that would be making the sound which i would guess goes around for 800 bucks to fix.. and then we call the broker and he says it is then the friction gear. i'm hopefully gettin it in this week so i'll let u guys know how it goes lets pray that the sound goes away after its all fixed up:P

On my mx it was just the adjsuter on the alternator pulley, it was rattling against the engine...? lol

haha yeah eh ... mazda quoted me $1900... ya ok.

i bet i can do it all under a grand haha

If the ticking goes away over 2k rpm, then i've found that to be the friction gear spring. Found a post on here before about this, no harm with this ticking just sounds really sh!tty.

hey are you sure thats just cause you cant hear it with the engine running louder above 2000rpm? Mine does that too but i had mazda do the diagnostic fearing it would be the friction gear but luckly it was only timing belt, tb tensioner and water pump.

Here is a post for the V6

http://homepage.ntlworld.com/dorothy.br ... x/p_p8.htm


found on this fourm by searching for ticking under this thread.